Grand Knight’s Report, June 2010

Time and time again I’m reminded that no man is an island. This year has certainly proved this axiom be true. It has been through the contributions of each of you, through your generous practice of volunteerism and your loyalty to the Spirit of Father McGivney, that our Council has successfully reached the goal of being a recipient of the Star Council Award. This presentation will come from the Supreme Council last in the summertime.

To wrap up our year, we have engaged in charity works providing charity funds to Special Olympics ($600), the Wheelchair Foundation ($300), Morning Star ($300), Tootsie Roll Florida Catholic KofC Charities $(900), and our own St. Francis of Assisi’s Church Building Fund ($350). With respect to vocations, $500 was collected and provided to Eli Castro, our own parish seminarian, as a partial tuition payment. Our Year of the Clergy Recognition Dinner in April, provided our clergy a small stipend totally $500 for their roles and responsibilities of keeping us on the road to holiness. The dinner was a success in great part to your support and our own SFA Women’s Guild. Through your generosity and hard work, we have provided hundreds of hot meals to our homeless and the needy of the greater Seffner/Brandon Community area. You may also recall some of our Charity funds ($600) were disbursed to help one of our own Philippine family member parents ravaged by a devastating Hurricane.

Also noteworthy is the great work our Youth Committee performed for the children of the parish. The children participated in a Soccer Challenge, a Basketball Free Throw, which we took 1st place all the way to the Regional games in Lakeland, FL, where we carried 3rd place. The 5th, 6th and 7th grade children in Faith Formation enjoyed participating and receiving financial rewards for writing some of the most explicit essays on the topic of “What is the true meaning of Christmas?”

You also exemplified the principles of ‘unity’ and ‘fraternity’ in the areas of Community and Council. Many productive and challenging volunteer hours have been given to build Community with four (4) parish breakfasts. No one has ever gone away from working a breakfast without praises and thanks from the parish community. Our dynamic council team brought fun, games, and fraternity to the Council through our monthly socials. We even had a special visit from Santa this year, at our Christmas social. Prior to this social our Church Committee members did an excellent job of ‘Keeping Christ in Christmas’. The Council also advanced the Pro-Life activities by praying the rosary before a the Tampa Abortion Clinic, leading the rosary on one Sunday in honor of parish future mother’s and standing up over 150 white crosses to remind our community to protect our most innocent…the unborn.

Throughout the year we have continually strived toward making a concerted effort to establish a solid rapport with others and by working with as many of the church groups in the Parish as we could. We sponsored a Hispanic Open House for KofC recruiting, participated in Spanish/American Dinner Dance and in the SFA International Soup and Salad Night. Much more work is still needed in this department in order to draw even more Catholic men into the Council ranks.

I recently attended the Florida KofC Annual State Convention in Orlando, Florida with Past Grand Knight (GK) Miguel Molina, five other District#35 GKs, and our District Deputy and Warden. At the convention, I reassured this Council’s very good standing, but I truly believe we can still do better. Brother Doug Murray (FL State Deputy), shared one bit of advice to help guide and direct all Knights, he said to “Work retention and make new members want to stay.” Doug is currently setting up a Retention Committee at State level that will be in contact with each Council’s Retention Committee.

The State Deputy also reminded everyone that councils have five charities to contribute to; they are: Special Olympics, Handicap, Vocations, Wheel Chair Foundation, and Helping Life. This year your Council was recognized with the Division#1 1st Place Community Activity Award and the Division#1 3rd Place Family Activity Award and Division31 1st Place Youth Activity Award. We also received recognition for contributing to the Wheel Chair Foundation. I am also happy to share this great news with you Brother Knights with all our parishers, who have stood behind the Blessed Antonio Rosmini Council #14278 at St Francis Catholic Church. Once again, congratulations for your dedicated perseverance, generosity and all your support that made these recognitions at State level possible.

As I step down as the outgoing Grand Knight, my most sincere thanks go out to each and every one of you, because my past year’s experience has been very rewarding and without you my job as the Grand Knight would have had to depend on “Providence” alone. I have seen, first hand, how our Lord never fails to repay those who have taken Him as a friend. As His friend, you have conformed to His Will and have endured the sacrifices of love He has asked of you. You all get the credit for our successes, I was merely the glue that kept the wheels of ‘Charity’, ‘Unity’, ‘Fraternity’, and ‘Patriotism’ well oiled. I pray for your continued success and health. Debbie and I thank you for the opportunity to serve with you this past year. We are honored to call you Brother Knights and SFA parish friend. See you at the Council meetings.